Devo Guitarist Bob Casale Dead at 61

Devo Guitarist Bob Casale -- known for the hit 1980 song "Whip It" -- has died, TMZ has learned.

Bob's brother Gerald -- also a founding member of the band -- tells TMZ, Bob passed away suddenly on Monday from health complications that led to heart failure.

Gerald tells us, "As an original member of Devo, Bob Casale was there in the trenches with me from the beginning. He was my level-headed brother, a solid performer, and talented audio engineer, always giving more than he got."

Bob was 61.

Devo was formed in 1972 and hit the Billboard charts in 1980 with "Whip It" ... one of the first music videos to make a huge splash on MTV back in the day.

8. I think that DEVO's first record...

21. +1

If you can, try and listen to their Stiff Records import from 1978 or roundabouts. It has a few of the cuts that made it onto the first album, but its got a great raw sound. I love the song Social Fools, which sadly never made the cut.

18. Devo and the Kent State Shootings

Devo fans probably know about this connection, but for those checking in who don't...

VR: Going back to your early days. You were present at the Kent State shootings in 1970. How did that day affect you?

Jerry Casale: Whatever I would say would probably not at all touch upon the significance or gravity of the situation at this point of time -- it would probably sound trite or glib. All I can tell you is that it completely and utterly changed my life. I was a white hippie boy and then I saw exit wounds from M1 rifles out of the backs of two people I knew. Two of the four people who were killed, Jeffrey Miller and Allison Krause, were my friends. We were all running our asses off from these motherfuckers. It was total, utter bullshit. Live ammunition and gasmasks - none of us knew, none of us could have imagined... They shot into a crowd that was running away from them! I stopped being a hippie and I started to develop the idea of devolution. I got real, real pissed off.

SNIP

VR: You said that the Kent State shooting sort of served as a catalyst for your theory of Devolution, which spawned Devo--

Jerry Casale: Absolutely. Until then I was a hippie. I thought that the world is essentially good. If people were evil, there was justice... and that the law mattered. All of those silly na´ve things. I saw the depths of the horrors and lies and the evil. The paper that evening, the Akron Beacon Journal, said that students were running around armed and that officers had been hurt. So deputy sheriffs went out and deputized citizens. They drove around with shotguns and there was martial law for ten days. 7 PM curfew. It was open season on the students. We lived in fear. Helicopters surrounding the city with hourly rotating runs out to the West Side and back downtown. All first amendment rights are suspended at the instant the governor gives the order. All of the class-action suits by the parents of the slain students were all dismissed out of court, because once the governor announced martial law, they had no right to assemble.

26. Very sad.

I sat next to him and Mark 20 years ago at a wedding of a mutual friend.
He was really funny and super friendly.
Seeing them on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE blew my mind and opened me up to new music in wonderful ways.
RIP Bob.